


Math Homework and Other Problems

by damthosefandoms



Series: Better in Yellow [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Teen Titans (Animated Series), The Flash (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: Gen, I dont know where I was going with this one tbh, I need more friendship shenanigans of these two sigh, Wally West is Kid Flash, Wally West is The Flash, but it’s fine I guess, i think dick is still robin in this but he's gonna be nightwing soon, remember when dick was a mathlete in yj?, set right after wally becomes the flash, wally is a scientific genius but college math classes are annoying, why do your homework yourself when your friend willingly does it for you, yeah me too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25634392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damthosefandoms/pseuds/damthosefandoms
Summary: Wally gets Dick to help him with his math homework. Also, he’s sick of things in his life constantly changing, but really, who isn’t?(Dick:“How can you be as smart as you are and yet not be able to do your own math homework?”Wally: “Ability and motivation are two different things, dude.”)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Wally West, Hal Jordan & Wally West
Series: Better in Yellow [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798453
Comments: 5
Kudos: 87





	Math Homework and Other Problems

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this because I was bored a week ago, then got burnt out on writing as whole so I wanted to post this now before I disappear again lol. My motivation is dead yayyyyyy
> 
> BUT at least I got this done! Even if it didn't end up like I thought it would. I was gonna do both of these events as two different fics/chapter/whatever but I felt like the first part was too short to post alone so yeah. Idk. Sorry
> 
> If I add more to this au, I might do it in this fic too idk!!! We'll see
> 
> Have fun reading!!!

Dick barely looked up from his phone as a gust of air blew by him and Wally appeared on the couch next to him. He dropped a notebook and pencil on the coffee table, quickly followed by a laptop that was open on some website.

“Math homework? Again?” Dick asked, pulling his mask off. None of the other Titans were in the tower that day—his identity was totally safe. 

Wally nods. “I hate this website, man. It’s worse than having Spotify without paying for Premium. I can’t skip questions at  _ all,  _ and if I don’t finish my homework on time, I’ll end up failing the class. I’m so sick of it. The teacher doesn’t even  _ teach!” _

Dick sighed, taking the computer from his best friend. Wally was taking a math course in his first year of college, but it had ended up being some kind of online program—they still had to meet in the classroom, but it was a computer lab. He’d complained to Dick a thousand times about it. The professor would come into the classroom ten minutes late each day, sit in the front of the room, take attendance, and then do nothing for the next hour and fifteen minutes. Wally hadn’t been warned ahead of time that the “class” was actually an online math program—apparently, it was required for all incoming freshmen in his major to take it during their first year at Central City University—and he was  _ livid.  _

As much as Wally loved science, he always hated doing math unless it was directly related to some sort of science.

“How is it that you’re a scientific prodigy, that you  _ gave yourself superpowers at age eleven,  _ but you can’t do a simple math problem?” Dick asked, reading through the problem. He gestured for Wally to hand him the notebook and flipped through it. Most of it was either blank or filled with doodles. He glanced up at Wally after opening to a page that had a crudely drawn Green Lantern on it, followed by the words, “CALL UNCLE HAL LATER!” written in all caps. 

Dick snorted. “Nice notes, Wallman. Why Hal? What’d he ever do to you to deserve this wonderful drawing?”  
Wally shrugged. “Got a text right before class started today. Said he wanted me to call him later. Just a reminder. And _shove it, Mathlete Wonder._ It’s not like my teacher teaches us anything to write into our notes. She just has us work on the computer program the whole time we’re in class, remember? I use that to waste time, since I sure as hell don’t want it to be a waste of money.”  
“Yeah, yeah. Maybe you should’ve paid attention when they taught you this stuff in high school so you’d actually know how to do it.”  
“They _didn’t_ teach me it in high school. I never learned half of this shit. It’s such bullshit.” 

Dick laughed. He never really had a problem with this kind of thing; Wally only ever asked him for help with schoolwork when it was really important. Like, for example, if he was falling behind because of hero duties. 

…Which had become a lot more common in the last month or so. Wally had gone through a lot in such a short time. He’d just decided to hang up his Kid Flash suit, at least until after college when he’d have more free time and possibly a better idea for a codename (he was eighteen, after all, so “Kid” didn’t exactly fit anymore), when Barry died. No one had seen that coming, least of all Wally. And it… it destroyed him. Barry had been loved by everyone: his friends, his coworkers… but his family more than anyone else. 

But Wally had known that just because Barry died, didn’t mean the Flash could disappear. Central City needed the Flash. So Wally gave them what they needed. 

It wasn’t without a cost. He’d been halfway through his first semester of college when it happened, and now he was struggling to keep up with his classes. Most of it was fine since Wally had super speed and could write an essay in seconds or finish whatever reading he needed to do with time to spare. But this goddamn math website was ruining that plan. Wally couldn’t speed through it, and (though Dick had offered, mostly as a joke) he sure as hell wasn’t going to just hack into the website and make it seem like he’d finished what he needed to do.

Dick and Wally spent the next few hours going through questions and solving equations, even going past the point Wally had to be at by the end of the week, just to get a jump start on the next so he’d have less work to do.

* * *

By the time the rest of the Titans got back to the tower, Dick and Wally had finished catching him up on his school work, and had moved on to re-watching  _ The Office _ on Netflix for the billionth time. When they heard the door open, Dick sat straight up and went, “Shit!” and elbowed Wally. Half a second later, Dick had his mask haphazardly smushed onto his face. Wally had no problem with showing off his identity to Dick’s team since he wasn’t exactly, you know, famously adopted by a trillionaire. However, he still had to be careful, so he opted for the sunglasses route since he was in civvies anyway. He grabbed his laptop and notebook as he stood up, then dashed over to the kitchen cabinet, grabbing a bag of chips on his way out.

“Sorry, guys, hate to eat and run, but you know, metabolism and all. See ya!” 

Dick rolled his eyes. Wally was kind of a nightmare, but he was still the best friend a guy could ask for.

* * *

Dick had  _ just  _ turned on the tv when Wally appeared in his room, throwing his phone at the wall as hard as he could. Dick winced at the cracking sound it made when it made contact. Definitely broken. 

“He’s leaving.”  
“Who?”  
“Hal. He’s—god. I don’t...” 

Wally collapsed into Dick’s desk chair. He ran a hand through his hair. 

“Hal just called me. Said he’s going back to Oa tomorrow. He’s asked them to get him reassigned to some other sector of the universe. All because he can’t deal with Barry being gone or whatever. It’s just… I mean, it’s bullshit, right? He can’t just… he can’t  _ do _ that.”

Dick sat up on his bed, hitting the off button on the tv remote. Netflix could wait. Netflix could  _ definitely  _ wait.

“Holy shit, Wally, I’m… I’m sorry,” he tried to say, but Wally was already on a roll.

“It’s just fucking bullshit, Dick. He thinks  _ he  _ can’t live without Barry? What about Aunt Iris? What about Don and Dawn, huh? They’re not even a year old, and they’re going to have to live their whole lives without their dad because I… because he’s gone, now—”

“Wally?”

“—and I mean, it’s so stupid, like, what about the rest of the world? First they lose the Flash, now Green Lantern too? What the hell am I… what are they going to do? What, is  _ Superman _ going to show up and—”

“Wally.”

“—save the world every time something bad happens? No, he’s gonna stay in Metropolis and pull freaking cats out of trees like always and—”

“Wally!” Dick yelled. Wally stopped and looked up at him.

“What?”  
“You’re wearing a hole in my floor.”

Wally looked down. At some point during his rant, he’d gotten up and started pacing. Apparently his attention (and therefore his speed) had gotten away from him, and the rug on the floor was literally burnt because of it. Wally blinked and sat down in the desk chair again. 

“Sorry.”  
“Not a problem,” Dick said, and it really wasn’t. He could just use Bruce’s credit card to buy a new rug. Problem solved.

Well, one problem, anyway. Dick shifted in his seat. Wally started to talk again. 

“They're going to send a new Green Lantern to protect Earth, apparently. Some guy named John Stewart. I looked into him, he’s an ex-marine. Older than Hal was, too. Dunno how he got involved with the wannabe Jedi club”—he stopped and smiled, just a bit, when Dick laughed at that—“but he doesn’t seem too bad. I’m just…”

“Not used to the idea?”  
“I don’t want Hal to leave, man. He’s the best, you know?”

Dick nodded. Of course he understood. Wally’s dad hadn’t been the best person, but Barry had taken that place in Wally’s life and filled the role for a really long time. Wally had been living with his aunt and uncle for over ten years when Barry died. He was practically Wally’s dad (despite actually being his uncle), and during that time, Wally had gotten to know Hal Jordan pretty well too, since he was Barry’s best friend. 

If Barry was Wally’s dad, Hal was his uncle. And Dick knew what it was like to lose a parent, and although his best friend wasn’t dead, he knew that if it was Wally who had died? He’d probably want to get as far away from this horrible world as he could. He could see why Hal did it. He could understand why Wally was upset at the idea of Hal leaving so soon after Barry had died. Hal was the only thing Wally really had left of a father figure after that.

Yeah, if Bruce ever died and Dick got stuck in Wally’s situation? He’d be pretty damn pissed off too. 

Dick got up, grabbed Wally by the arm, and pulled him into a hug. 

“It’ll work out, Wally. I swear,” he said.

Wally sighed, hugging him back. “I really hope you’re right.”

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is like 90% me complaining about the math class I had in my first semester of college lol whoops.


End file.
